Anna Gelderd

MP for South East Cornwall

Labour

Anna Gelderd is the Labour MP for South East Cornwall, having first been elected to parliament at the 2024 general election.

In the 2024 general election, Gelderd received 15,670 votes (31.8%). The Conservative candidate, Sheryll Murray, received 13,759 votes (27.9%), while the Reform UK candidate, Paul Wadley, secured 9,311 votes (18.9%). Gelderd was elected with a majority of 1,911 votes.

The South East Cornwall constituency has been held by the Conservative Party (1983-1997 and 2010-2024), the Liberal Democrats (1997-2010) and the Labour Party (2024- ) since its creation in 1983.

Gelderd’s immediate predecessor was Sheryll Murray of the Conservative Party. Murray held the seat from 2010 to 2024.

Political Career

Gelderd currently serves as a parliamentary private secretary (PPS) in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. A PPS acts as an unpaid parliamentary assistant, providing a link between the senior frontbencher and backbench MPs. The role is widely regarded as the first step on the ministerial ladder. Although they cannot speak for the government in debates, a PPS is bound by collective responsibility and becomes part of the so-called “payroll vote”, expected to support the official line in all divisions. Gelderd was appointed to this role in July 2026, following the Labour leadership contest and Andy Burnham’s elevation as prime minister.

Gelderd served as a PPS in the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero from September 2025 to July 2026.

In May 2026, Gelderd was among the over 100 Labour MPs who signed a joint statement insisting it was “no time for a leadership contest.” The letter was an intervention in the political crisis engulfing Keir Starmer’s premiership, after Labour suffered heavy losses in the 2026 local elections and devolved elections to the Scottish Parliament and Senedd Cymru. It was organised as a counterweight to a mounting rebellion that had seen high-profile figures, including some ministers, call for Starmer’s resignation.

The statement read: “Last week we had a devastatingly tough set of election results. It shows we have a hard job ahead to win back trust from the electorate.

“That job needs to start today – with all of us working together to deliver the change the country needs.

“We must focus on that. This is no time for a leadership contest.”

In March 2025, Gelderd introduced a bill under the 10-minute rule procedure to promote the Cornish language (Kernewek) and protect Cornish heritage within the UK education system.

Addressing the commons, Gelderd noted that Cornish lacked the “Part 3” legal protections afforded to other Celtic languages like Welsh or Scottish Gaelic.

In a subsequent article for Politics.co.uk, Gelderd said her bill was “about promoting Cornish pride, preserving our heritage, and making sure our distinct voice is heard in parliament, many miles from the Duchy.”

It called for “educational institutions to have the opportunity to teach Cornish if they wish, with sufficient support. This isn’t about imposing Cornish on anyone, but about making it available, just as Welsh and Gaelic are.”

Gelderd has sat as a member of the House of Commons environmental audit committee (2024-2025).

Gelderd delivered her maiden speech on 14 November 2024 during a debate on the Lord Spiritual (Women) Act 2015 (Extensions) Bill.

In it, she said: “I do not want where you are born to limit where you are going, or what you can do to be determined by who you know. Breaking down the barriers to opportunity is not a campaign slogan for me; it is a guiding principle, and what I intend to deliver for my community.”

She added: “I know that caring for my mother throughout her prolonged and painful death from cancer – something that too many families face—has led me to this place. Without that experience, I would simply not be here. She told me to find solace in purpose, and I have…

“My family gave me a bedrock of certainty that anyone, anywhere, can make a positive difference. My grandad, injured in an industrial accident, would have me sit next to him on his green leather sofa after school to watch prime minister’s questions.

“I have no doubt that he would be shocked but proud that I stand now by these green leather benches”.

Political Views

Leadership elections

Labour deputy leadership 2025: Gelderd was one of 175 Labour MPs who nominated Bridget Phillipson for the party’s deputy leadership in September 2025. The election followed the resignation of Angela Rayner, who stepped down as deputy prime minister and deputy party leader after an investigation into her tax affairs. It marked the first time since 2007 that Labour had held a deputy leadership contest while in government.

Phillipson, the serving education secretary, was widely viewed as the candidate favoured by Downing Street and the party leadership. She secured 175 nominations from the Parliamentary Labour Party (PLP), comfortably exceeding the 80 required to reach the final ballot. She was ultimately defeated by Lucy Powell.

Factional identity and party tradition

Common Endeavour: Gelderd has been identified with the Common Endeavour group, a collective of Labour MPs from the party’s “broad centre” which set out a series of essays alongside the Fabian society focused on how “Labour can apply its values to the problems we face in the second quarter of the 21st century.”

The Fabian Society pamphlet, Common Endeavour: Building a Stronger Britain (April 2026), defined four generational challenges: “affordability, capacity, security, and solidarity.”

The group’s platform, set out in the essays, included calls for a fundamental reappraisal of the UK’s international alliances, reduced strategic dependence on the United States and the pursuit of a closer, Swiss-style relationship with the European Union, including an “emergency brake” on freedom of movement.

The essays were penned by the Labour MPs Liam Byrne, Anna Gelderd, Andrew Lewin, Luke Murphy, Anneliese Dodds, Alex Baker, Calvin Bailey and Jeevun Sandher, alongside ….

The introduction to the group of essays referred to the phrase used in Clause IV of the Labour Party constitution, which argues that the movement achieves more by “the strength of our common endeavour”.

In a New Statesman article, the MPs rejected the “embrace of ethnocratic division and plutocratic Thatcherism” by their political opponents.

The piece added: “Their values will make us weaker by dividing us ever further. They would have us draw away from like-minded allies in Europe and leave us more dependent on mad fossil fuel-obsessed dictators from abroad.

“And they’d indiscriminately deport our friends, neighbours, and those that sit by our relatives’ bedsides as they suffer. They’d make our nation weaker, because they do not think we achieve more together than we achieve alone.”

In her essay, Gelderd argued that Britain should treat its public data as a sovereign asset. Citing the missed opportunities of North Sea oil revenues, she proposed the creation of a sovereign data wealth fund to ensure “value goes back to the public, treating data as a shared resource managed in the public interest.”

Labour Rural Research Group: Gelderd has been listed as a member of the Labour Rural Research Group (LRRG) – a caucus made up of MPs representing Labour’s so-called “rural wall”. Launched in August 2025, the group’s primary aim is to ensure that policy is developed with a clear understanding of the distinct challenges and priorities of rural and semi-rural communities.

The LRRG, chaired by the Suffolk Coastal MP Jenny Riddell-Carpenter, conducts research and consultations to challenge what it sees as a “rural blind spot” in Whitehall.

Its first report, “Understanding Rural Britain”, surveyed voters on issues from healthcare and the economy to housing and the environment, seeking to build an evidence-based policy platform. The survey found nearly three quarters (74.4%) of respondents believe rural communities had been overlooked over the past 15 years. On the back of the report, Riddell-Carpenter stated that using the labelling rural voters as Nimbys (not in my back yard) was “toxic” and maintained “many people rightly despise the term”.

Living Standards Coalition: Gelderd is a member of the Living Standards Coalition. Established in July 2025, the group’s stated aim was to develop and promote policy ideas that directly reduce everyday costs for households, particularly in areas such as food, energy, housing and childcare. In an open letter published upon its founding, addressed to Keir Starmer, the MPs wrote: “Our constituents will ask one question at the next election: did this Labour government make me better off?”

They added: “To raise living standards, we support government interventions that will help to increase incomes and lower costs.”

SERA: Gelderd has been listed as a member of the Socialist Environment and Resources Association (SERA) – a socialist society affiliated with the Labour Party. Founded in 1973, SERA is the party’s official environmental campaign group. The organisation campaigns on a wide range of issues, including renewable energy, biodiversity, air quality and the transition to a green economy. SERA describes its member MPs as “champions for the environment”.

Welfare

Welfare vote (July 2025): Gelderd voted in favour of the government’s flagship welfare bill at second reading. The vote came after ministers agreed to significant concessions to avoid defeat via a mass rebellion of Labour MPs on 1 July 2025.

Assisted dying

Gelderd voted in favour of the Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill, better known as the assisted dying bill, at both second reading (November 2024) and third reading (June 2025).

Setting out her position in a Cornish Times article, published in December 2024, Gelderd wrote: “Voting against it would have ended further debate in parliament. This is far too important and sensitive an issue to close down without thorough discussion.

“Supporting the bill at this stage ensures that it will continue to be carefully debated and refined.

“Secondly, I believe that individuals with a terminal illness, who meet strict criteria, should have the right to make a dignified choice about how and when they die. This bill is about offering autonomy and compassion to those at the end of their lives, while continuing to uphold high-quality palliative and end-of-life care.”

Social values and conscience issues

Abortion decriminalisation (2025): Gelderd voted in favour of a backbench amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill that sought to decriminalise abortion in England and Wales in June 2025. The amendment, which was passed by a majority of 242 votes, removed women from the threat of prosecution for ending a pregnancy at any stage. As an issue of conscience, MPs were allowed to vote according to their personal beliefs.

Before Politics

Gelderd studied at the University of Bristol and earned a master’s degree at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge (2010-2011).

Before entering parliament, Gelderd worked as a parliamentary assistant to Labour MP Tony Cunningham.

She subsequently worked in advisor and advocacy roles for Oxfam, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), the Marine Conservation Society, and most recently as a senior advisor for the ocean conservation group Oceana.